Marketing is often a “fun” business topic.  It’s surrounded by new opportunities and getting a company’s name into the market.  Sometimes trainers, consultants, and professional coaches let that zeal taint how they perceive business issues.  Their desire to work on marketing makes all problems look like marketing problems.

In discussing calls to action with a business owner, he told me how much he enjoyed marketing.  As we talked through a few points he interrupted me when I mentioned events, “We’ve tried events and they are just a pain.  People sign up but then don’t show up.”  We briefly discussed some confirmation messages and reminder initiatives to improve attendance for those that signed up.  We continued the conversation and when I mentioned whitepapers and reports he complained, “Those things are a waste of time.  Sure people download them but they aren’t real leads.  We’ve never had anyone interested when our sales team called.” We then discussed transition strategies to the sales team.

Curious I asked, “Sounds like you have a marketing system down pat, what’s your best call to action.”  He smiled and said, “Our radio ads are great.  I do them myself and love hearing them on the radio.” So I asked, “Sounds good, and it generates a lot of leads?”  He responded, “Yes, we get some calls in from it. Not a whole lot but I think the most powerful aspect is people recognize our name when my sales people meet with them.”

I was confused because all of the web marketing calls to action were criticized for not generating solid leads.  However, radio was lauded for providing very few measurable leads.  Nothing against radio, it can be a powerful medium, but it seemed like he liked it because it served as a name recognition crutch for the sales team rather than a marketing tool.

My lesson learned was that the business owner liked talking about marketing.  So much so that other business problems were assigned to marketing. Attendee confirmation and reminders was a problem with his administrative process.  Sure, it used some common tools and competencies with marketing like email reminder content and layout but the actual process was not a core marketing task. In discussing downloads, the business owner claimed to have had over 500 leads from downloads but not one of those people were interested?  While marketing could help the process by offering a promotional deal or call to action after the report was downloaded, there is a strong indication that the sales team might have a deficiency in approach calls to prospects.

Are you working on the right end of the problem?  If marketing is presenting a professional message, building an audience, and generating leads then it’s meeting its primary goals.  Any related problems might be affected or helped by marketing efforts but will not be solved with them.

I was part of a strategizing meeting for a new online marketing initiative years ago.  The owner of the company who was looking to start the new campaign interrupted the project manager on seeing a sample landing page layout and said “I’m not sure about that shade of blue in the background.”  The blue in question was pulled from their logo but the designer on hand asked what kind of blue the owner had in mind. “Crisper,” the owner said.  A half hour conversation ensued about what type of blue would be “crisper”.

My reason for being at the meeting was to nail down the ideal audience and agree on an email schedule.  At the end of the hour meeting, the designer had a long description of what blue might work but none of the high level topics had been addressed.

I’m not trying to downplay the importance of a professional design, it makes a difference.  But once “professional” looking is achieved, small tweaks will make little or no difference.  Instead it becomes a conversation with no clear purpose or correct answer.

That campaign never launched because none of the critical elements were covered.  Instead small design and branding issues were debated.  So it ended up being a complete waste of time and money.

Most consultants, trainers, and professional coaches don’t have a lot of spare time to dedicate to online marketing.  So when time is set aside to strategize a campaign, make sure to focus on marketing elements that convert. Things like design can often side track critical elements because it’s more fun to talk about personal preferences.  Unless something is glaringly wrong with a layout or design couch it until high level strategy is set. Then make specific changes.

So what are important elements?  A few examples that will critically affect online marketing is:

• Identifying target audience
• Calls to Action
• Communication channels
• Communication schedule

If any of these items are missing or out of sync, it’s likely to sink the entire campaign.  If you find that you’ve covered all of the critical items, feel free to debate finer details, but never before.

Image courtesy of KROMKRATHOG/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Events can be a powerful call to action.  They can also be a source of stress as a marketing tool because it can really put a firm’s reputation on the line.  The embarrassment at having only two people show up for an event is tangible and gives a poor first impression to the limited audience members.  This stress often leads trainers, consultants, and professional coaches to make irrational decisions about timing that set their marketing up for failure.

Last week a client emailed and said, “I have an event coming up next week but it’s not on the site.  Can you set up an event webpage and send out an email invitation?”

The first problem with the request is the obvious one. One week’s advance notice will limit the availability of much of the audience. Typically an event should be set up and promotions started at least 4 weeks in advance (2-3 weeks for webinars).  More complex events will require more lead time than that. A week’s advance notice for any event is unlikely to generate much interest for someone seeing the event for the first time.

When we followed up on the event our client said, “I need to get the invite out because I’ve invited a couple people who are coming, but that’s it.  I need to fill the room.”  When we asked how long the event had been scheduled for our client said, “I put it on my calendar a month ago but I have an event this week and a second one next week which we’ve focused our marketing on.  This one just slipped through the cracks.”

This highlights the second problem.  Clumping too many events together tends to cause your own events to compete with one another.  A good rule of thumb is not having an event within a month of another unless they are being marketed to distinctly different groups.

Don’t wait until it’s too late and stress out about an event.  Put an event calendar together by quarter, 6 month, or yearly schedules.  That can serve as a guideline for promotional timing and ensure that you have sufficient time to fill the room.